SMRT CEO Desmond Kuek breaks silence, addresses public

On behalf of all of us in SMRT, I apologise to members of the public who were affected by last weekend’s disruption. We are all deeply pained by what happened. Many have asked what SMRT has done since the Dec 2011 incidents. Please allow me to address these questions upfront. Since 2012, SMRT has gone into overdrive to address maintenance issues arising from age-related serviceability issues. We beefed up and renewed the Trains team. Staff strength increased from 3,500 to 5,300 today, with nearly triple the number of Engineers to nearly 500 now. Our SMRT Institute was transformed to better meet the professional and vocational training requirements of the workforce that had been significantly expanded to meet the intensified demands. We also tied everyone’s performance incentives to a basket of measures, of which safety and reliability was given the greatest weight. We subj...